And the miracle of today

Alaskan postcard!

Mom and dad sent me one and it just arrived today. Made my day! Which makes me wonder how efficient the postmen in Rwanda are. Can I send postcards? Or afford to? Cuz international mail is probably one of the greatest inventions ever!

Rwanda history update. The genocide began in April 1994 when the Hutu people began eliminating the Tutsi people. Hundreds of thousands of people, possibly even a million, were killed in just a few months. And not just killed, but a carefully planned and organized elimination of the Tutsi people in all manner of strikingly heinous ways.

I was 7 years old and oblivious to anything on the other side of the river much less the other side of the globe. It’s something that may have been touched on in World History class but I do not remember that info. There was a memoir I read once which was pretty intense, but that is the extent of my involvement with Rwanda’s tragic history. And now I have the opportunity to go visit a nation who was so recently tore itself apart from the inside while the world seems to have set back and allowed it to happen. Each and every one of the people I will be working with all carry some burden from that- the physical scars, lost family and friends, plus the unimaginable emotional baggage. Even those who weren’t alive in 1994, their family was most likely either murdered or murderer. And here my biggest problems have to do with having too much food coming on in the garden and getting my sketch to scan… It looks way better in person, I promise!

This is from my workshop and seems appropriately dark and heinous for this post.“Heinous” is such a good adjective! And twice in one post…This blog is awesome.